350 Sacramento’s Legislative Team enters the summer legislative season at the Capitol supporting a range of bills connected to climate change. We sifted among the dozens of candidates and took on 14 bills on which to advocate. For each of those, someone has volunteered to take charge of tracking, letter writing and testifying in support at the committee hearings that lead toward a floor vote in either the Assembly or Senate. A sampling of those bills follows:
- Senator Henry Stern’s SB 582 adds several sections to the Health & Safety Code and Natural Resources Code under the somewhat innocuous heading of Climate Change Restoration and Resilience. But “restoration” has come to mean returning atmospheric and oceanic CO2 to pre-industrial levels. Accordingly, the proposal includes a startlingly aggressive new emissions reduction goal: instead of an 40% reduction (compared to 1990 and 2020) by the end of 2030, and 80% by 2045, the goal the California Air & Resources Board (CARB) must shoot for would be 80% by 2030! The bill has passed the first of three Senate Committees; it faces its next test on April 27th.
- Equally significant is Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi’s AB 1395, which would place into statute Governor Brown’s Executive Order aiming for carbon neutrality in 2045. The bill’s first committee hearing is on April 28th.
- Finally, Senator Connie Leyva’s SB 372 is an example of a practical proposal that will advance useful climate solutions. Senator Leyva’s bill would have a program within the State Treasurer’s Office consolidate and improve various programs that finance medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks. SB 372 has cleared its first of three Senate committees.
Additional supported bills:
